


Stay By My Side

by CombatBootsandDreams



Series: Glow in the dark [16]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beholding gives Jon a headache, Cuddling & Snuggling, End Avatar Gerard Keay, Gerry is supportive, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:53:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28181940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CombatBootsandDreams/pseuds/CombatBootsandDreams
Summary: Everything buzzed with an energy he couldn’t explain, couldn’t control, he just knew. An ocean of never-ending thoughts and fears and dreams and knowledge leaking through his feeble mental barricades like they were made of glass, shattering on impact. Like they hadn’t even been there in the first place.Or: Beholding overwhelms Jon with information and Gerry tries to help.
Relationships: Gerard Keay/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: Glow in the dark [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924183
Comments: 4
Kudos: 95





	Stay By My Side

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thank you guys for all the nice comments on my other stories, you guys rock. Also sorry for the bad name I spent over 15 minutes thinking about it and that was the best I could come up with.

He stumbled like he was drunk to the door of his flat. Walking up three flights of stairs had been hell on his everything but the elevator wouldn’t be fixed for another week and a half. His headache was worse than when he left (was kicked out of) the institute. Everything buzzed with an energy he couldn’t explain, couldn’t control, he just _knew._ An ocean of never-ending thoughts and fears and dreams and knowledge leaking through his feeble mental barricades like they were made of glass, shattering on impact. Like they hadn’t even been there in the first place.

He barely made it inside before his legs gave out, sending shooting pain up his knees. He Knew they would bruise later.

Bruises are caused by breaking blood vessels and ~~The Archivist~~ _Jon_ thinks he may be able to feel them breaking, even though he _knows_ that it’s just Beholding.

There’s another person in his flat, he can hear them, heavy boots being taken off and replace with the soft sound of feet on wood. He wants to see them, but Beholding sweeps him away too quickly. Like he was looking for a lightbulb and ignoring the _house fire_ till he felt the heat against his skin.

“Hey, you’re home early. How was work—oh shit! What’s wrong?” A voice asked, urgent and worried and he can hear them over the static, over all the noise and knowledge Beholding is blasting into his ears and his head and his _eyes._

He thinks he could have heard Gerry’s voice over the noise of the whole galaxy if he had to.

He stops right in front of him and Jon pries his eyes away from Beholding’s knowledge desperate to communicate in the small window he had before he got swept away again.

“Are you physically injured?” He asks quietly looking for any sign of blood without crowding.

He shakes his head and tries to speak. “Behold—” Gerry’s reading a new book in between customers at the bookstore and—.

“Beholding? Let me guess, trying to give you too much information again, huh?” There was no trying about it, Beholding didn't need to _try_ to dump information into his head, it just did. Gerry calms down a bit at this, because they both know he can’t fix this with some gauze pads disinfectant. As much as Jon _knows_ he wants to because not even Jon can fix this and it's his brain and his god.

“Hey, hey, I know it’s hard to focus, but can I touch you? I want to get you off the floor.”

Jon nods and suddenly the floor is gone. The floor’s not gone. Beholding informs him like a parent chastising a young child, you’re just not touching it anymore. Gerry lifted him like it was nothing, setting him on the bed and curling up around him.

“I need you to try and stay with me okay?”

Jon tries to nod, tries to say anything but the overwhelming ocean of knowledge is deafening. The static becoming such a high-pitched whine he’s still shocked no one else can hear it.

All that comes out is a pained whimper.

“Just breath okay? I need you to keep breathing.”

But how can he breathe when he’s underwater? How can he breathe when there’s no oxygen to inhale? _Not true,_ there is oxygen in this room, he just can’t breathe it. Except he is because Jon’s not unconscious right now.

God, it would be so much better if he was unconscious right now.

“Hey, how many people live in London.” Gerry after what felt like hours but was probably no more than a few seconds. The question is an attempt to knock him out of his spiral. To direct the knowledge out of his head and into the world. Sometimes it makes the pain almost bearable, _sometimes._

“8.797 million people.”

“What’s Boyles Law?”

“When pressure is decreased the volume is increased.”

“How do you get specific heat?”

“Mass times temperature change divided by heat energy.”

“Heat Energy?”

“Mass times change in temperature times specific heat— It’s not working.” He squeaks, his hand desperately trying to cling onto Gerry’s.

“Okay, is there anything else we can try? What do you need right now?”

He couldn’t speak, knowing nothing understandable would pass through his lips after a few desperate chokes that just produced the static in the world outside of his head. He tries not to apologize as Gerry cringes at the noise.

Jon could apologize later. When it wouldn’t just make things worse. For the moment he just curls in closer and that seems to get the message across.

“Okay, we can work with that.” Gerry whispers running his hands through Jon’s hair which just makes him curl in closer. Gerry readjusts slightly and every movement felt like nails in his skull.

“I’m not going to let you go. Just try to stay with me Jon. Listen to me and not the noise, not the static. I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.”

It takes another six dizzying hours for the tide to recede enough to slam the door in the face of Beholding’s knowledge.

“Hey.” He scratches out looking up at his boyfriend's face which had turned into a mixture of relief and worry.

“Hey, check-in?”

“I feel better.”

“Way to state the obvious, but you went under for more than seven hours so I’m assuming that’s not a high bar to clear.”

“It isn’t. You’ve been awake the entire time?”

“Yeah, you didn’t notice?”

“You didn’t have to, not that I don’t appreciate it, but I could barely remember I was in this room.”

“There was no way I was going to leave you alone in that kind of pain. The thought wouldn’t have even crossed your mind if that was me, would it have?”

“Well no.”

“So why would I leave you? I haven’t left you yet and I’m not going to start now. We’re there for each other right?”

“Always.”

“Yeah, now get off it’s 3 am on a Friday and there’s leftover take out in the fridge.”

“We’re eating take out at 3 am?”

“Of course we are, do you need a statement first? I know you have some stashed around here somewhere.”

“I’m good, just can you stay here? Just for another five minutes?”

Gerry’s smile changes into something softer as he stares at Jon with something that looked like fond exasperation.

“Five minutes, then take out.”

“Five minutes.”

(They’re both asleep in two.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for staying around till the end.


End file.
